


A Perfect Circle

by evilgrrl



Series: Pitch Black Series [1]
Category: Pitch Black (2000), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), The Chronicles of Riddick Series
Genre: Drug Withdrawal, F/M, HEA, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Inprisonment, Knives, Mention of Castration, Mildly Dubious Consent, Minor Character Death, Morally Dubious Characters, Non-Explicit Sex, Non-Sexual Bondage, Sad lack of smut, Self-Insert, Shotgun, bad judgment in men, explicit violence, racially charged taunting, unrepentant murder, villains and anti heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-04-20
Updated: 2000-04-20
Packaged: 2019-07-28 01:24:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16231301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilgrrl/pseuds/evilgrrl
Summary: Fan fiction based on the 2000 Vin Diesel movie, Pitch Black.An interstellar passenger ship crashes on a remote, desolate planet, and the survivors try to find a way back to civilization. Their plans are threatened by an escaped convict named Riddick, who was being shepherded back to prison on the ship. Can the castaways find a way back to civilization, or will the dangers of the planet, and Riddick, prove to be insurmountable?NOTE: The eclipse that set the plot into motion in the movie doesn't happen, so that the deadly alien creatures never emerge from their hiding places, and the survivors can focus on escaping.





	1. Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: Two characters have sex without EXPLICIT CONSENT in Chapter Three. It's not a rape, but in real life, both partners should consent before having a sexual experience.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having survived the horrific crash of their interstellar passenger ship, a group of castaways faces new dangers on a desolate, inhospitable planet. 
> 
> Riddick, an escaped convict being shepherded back to prison by a guard, may be one of the biggest dangers. Despite the danger, one survivor begins to be inexplicably drawn to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No sex occurs in this chapter.

POSSIBLY UNNECESSARY MOVIE SUMMARY based on an entry from the IMDb: 

In the distant future, in a different part of the galaxy, the space transport ship "Hunter-Gratzner" is carrying travelers to a series of different destinations while they are in cryo-sleep (suspended animation). 

The ship's hull is pierced by debris from the tail of a comet and its emergency systems come online. The crew is awakened automatically, to find the collision has killed the captain. 

Knocked into the atmosphere of a nearby planet, it seems inevitable that the ship will crash, killing everyone on board. Docking pilot Carolyn Fry tries to control the descent, but the craft is too heavy and will not stabilize. 

She begins jettisoning the cargo sections of the ship, trying to make it light enough to land safely. Her navigator, Greg Owens, realizes Fry intends to jettison the passenger cabin to lighten the load, killing all the passengers to save herself. He prevents her from doing it, but in the horrific slide of the crash landing, he is impaled by a metal shaft.

Carolyn apologizes for her cowardice to Owens' dead body. When she uncovers it, however she realizes he is still alive and in terrible pain. Fry orders everyone out of the ship, and attends to him alone as he dies.

 

The planet is a hot and barren desert lit by three suns.

Only 12 of the 40 passengers have survived, including:

Docking Pilot Carolyn Fry, 

Dangerous prison escapee Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel), who can see in the dark because his eyes have been "shined," but is helpless in bright light, 

Armed bounty hunter William Johns, 

A Muslim Imam escorting 3 young men on their first hajj (a religious pilgrimage) to the planet New Mecca, 

Fussy antique dealer Paris P. Ogilvie, 

Stowaway teenager Jack,

Skyler Givens, a young woman traveling on business, and 

Newly married settlers 'Zeke' Ezekiel and his partner Shazza Montgomery.

Prison convict Riddick, who had escaped his confinement during the crash, attacks his jailer Johns and ends up in confinement a second time. He escapes yet again, to the horror of the rest of the survivors, who are terrified of him. 

While Johns hunts for Riddick, the castaways send out a search party for other survivors. They don't find anyone else alive, but they do locate the remains of a small, solar powered settlement, long abandoned by humans. Fry locates a small shuttle craft which they may be able to use to escape.

Zeke has taken it upon himself to bury the dead victims of the crash, sucking extra oxygen from a breathing tube to compensate for the thin atmosphere. Unexpectedly he is attacked by something unseen and dragged screaming into a tunnel, leaving blood everywhere. 

When his wife, Shazza, runs in to help her husband, she find Riddick instead and assumes he murdered her husband. Riddick flees, and she and Johns give chase until Johns manages to tears off Riddick's protective goggles, blinding him with the sun, and Shazza knocks him out with a kick to the head. 

 

Having blamed Riddick for Zeke's death, Johns chains him up yet again and leaves him in an isolated segment of the ship's wreckage. 

Fry comes to question Riddick about Zeke's death. Riddick denies killing Zeke and hints that he's no longer the group's biggest problem, because if he didn't kill Zeke, what did?

Spurred by Riddick's suggestion, Fry investigates the tunnel where Zeke disappeared, and finds only his severed ankle and boot. Fry understands that Riddick didn't kill Zeke after all, but the hostile life forms who did are still in the cave with her. She escapes to escape with the help of the others. They speculate that the aliens can't stand the light, which is a big problem for them (the aliens) on a planet where the sun never sets.

While everyone else is out helping Fry, Skyler goes to check out Riddick.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

"Riddick?"

Cautiously Skyler entered the shadowy ruins of the Hunter-Gratzner's cargo compartment. Damaged equipment and machine components lay everywhere like so much unwanted junk.

She knew he was in here somewhere, but her eyes were having trouble adjusting to the dim light after having been out in the blinding suns so long. She wouldn't let that make her careless though. Riddick could see in the dark, she knew that. And from what she'd heard about him, Riddick was an almost supernaturally powerful predator. But Johns had chained him up, hadn't he?

She moved a little further into the room, and that's when she saw him. He was sitting as if on a throne, with his arms stretched out on either side of him, like that big statue of Lincoln on Earth. But then Skyler saw through the illusion -- Riddick was just sitting on a cargo container, and that his arms were held out because they were chained to support panels. She looked down to see that his feet were shackled to the floor. Yet Riddick still managed to look imperious somehow, even sullen and silent as he was now. 

He kept his face to the shadows, and she realized that he probably did that to protect his eyes. Johns had ripped off his sun goggles when they fought, and now he would be blinded by any kind of light. She remembered how he had kept his eyes closed the entire time Johns and Fry were dragging him back to the ship after they captured him, after Zeke's death. She also remembered how he hadn't fought back when they'd beaten him as he lay on the ground. He had just rolled up into a ball and covered his eyes.

She was certain that Riddick had heard her come in. But he remained immobile, impassive, and impenetrable. Skyler was the one walking free, not chained up like a wild animal. So how could he make her feel so awkward, like an intruder?

Still . . .

"I . . . uh, brought you some water." She regretted the words almost as soon as they were out of her mouth, but that was why she had come here, wasn't it? To give him some water?

There was no reaction for several long seconds. Then Riddick raised his head a little, coming to a decision to speak. "Why?" he asked. Just that one simple question. As if the answer weren't obvious. As if she had come with some ulterior motive. There was no gratitude in his voice, just automatic suspicion and maybe some mild curiosity.

Skyler didn't know what she had been expecting, but this wasn't it. "Uh, I don't know. I thought you'd want it."

Riddick became a statue again, unmoving.

Skyler took a deep breath and stepped forward again, holding the water tube with its little plastic straw up in front of her. "Don't you want it?"

Evidently he did not. Finally, unnerved by his silence, she turned to bolt out of the room, but managed to stumble over her own feet as she did so. Why had she come here? Just as she reached the doorway, he spoke.

"Wait." Again, just one simple word. Quite an economy of expression, Skyler thought to herself, turning back.

"I want it." He said it like it was a concession of sorts, as if he wanted the water against his will.

"Okay." She came back to where he sat, chained, but stopped several steps short. She hadn't thought about how to give the water to him. Without getting close, anyway.

"You want to give it to me, but you're afraid."

Master of the understatement, she thought to herself. "No shit," she muttered with something like relief. "What do you think?"

Riddick was unperturbed. "I don't think I'd try to hurt somebody bringing me water." He sounded perfectly reasonable.

She exhaled in disbelief. "You have got to be kidding me."

He tilted his head curiously, still keeping his eyes to the darkness. "You don't believe me?"

"I believe you'd do anything to escape. I heard about what you did to Johns."

Immediately after the crash -- shackled, blindfolded, bit in his mouth -- Riddick had escaped from his locked cryo-chamber and hidden in the rafters. When Johns passed under him, Riddick had dropped the lower half of his body onto the man and tried to strangle him with his own leg chains. Impressive. But horrifying.

"Johns," Riddick said, laughing to himself. "He deserved it. But, you know, you're a lot prettier than Johns is."

She shook her head at his obvious attempt to manipulate her. "All this and charm too," she said sarcastically. "You must really be something."

Riddick smiled again. "Yes, I really am. Now come on. You came to give me that water." Soft, coaxing. His deep growling voice lulled her.

She hesitated a second more, examining his restraints with her eyes, then looked back at his face -- his face without any eyes. Warily she inched forward and stretched her arm as far as she could to hand Riddick the little tube of water. He made no move to take it.

"Honey, I can't reach my mouth with these chains on." Scolding her like a reluctant child. "Come on now. Just put the straw in my mouth and I'll take it from there."

He sounded perfectly sensible, but she knew couldn't trust him. Yet . . . she had come to give him the water, and it would be unfair -- cruel even -- to leave him without it. Not to mention gutless. And how much damage could he do in those restraints? Probably a lot. But couldn't she just scream and bring the others running?

Very cautiously, she came toward him again. She could smell the clean sweat of his body, with an undertone of something spicy, or musky maybe. Slowly, carefully, she reached out and put the straw between his lips. Quickly he bit down and pulled his head back, taking the little tube from her. He drank the water immediately, then let the straw and the empty tube drop from his lips.

"Thank you." He sounded sincere for the first time now. Like they had been arguing, and he had made her concede his point.

Relieved to have completed her mission, Skyler relaxed just a little, still feeling uncomfortable. "You're welcome. Is there . . .anything else?"

She knew from the way he looked at her that he had about a million come-backs for such a stupid question, asked of a man chained up in the hold of a derelict ship.

She still hadn't seen his eyes. She was close enough to his face, though, to see the bloody scrape on the right side of his forehead. Her eyes flicked over him and found other marks that Johns and Shazza had left on Riddick's body -- the parts she could see anyway, which was bad enough. 

Somehow his injuries surprised her. She had thought he was almost invulnerable, but now she saw on his body the signs of abuse, both old and new. He might not have cried out when Johns and Shazza had beaten him, but he had suffered damage nonetheless. From the looks of him, it was probably just one in a long line of beatings.

"You're hurt."

He doesn't even need to talk, she thought to herself. She could read his expression like a book. And now, as he looked away from her, there was a little contempt in it -- contempt for her stupidity, for her complacent assumptions.

"God, I mean . . . you must hurt like hell." No reaction. "I've got some painkillers," she volunteered suddenly, surprising even herself.

That got his attention. "Painkillers? You mean the ones you didn't offer to the navigator?"

She knew exactly what he was referring to. The sight of Owens with that metal pole through his chest, the sound of his breathless screams, would never leave her. "I didn't think ibuprofen would help him at that point."

Riddick chuckled blackly. "I guess not. I thought you had something good."

"It's better than nothing."

He didn't argue. "How many will you give me?" he said, and she heard the unspoken question: how much of your stash are you willing to share?

But Skyler didn't think of it in terms of a "stash;" it was just part of the personal first aid kit she carried. She was looking at his body again, estimating the damage and trying to figure out the right dosage. "Three? Four?"

"Gimme five."

"Okay, whatever. I'll be back."

Obediently she went back to the destroyed cockpit chamber where the others were, discussing what to do with Riddick and how to get off of this fucking rock. No one noticed as she found her jacket -- useless in this heat -- and took a small case from the inside pocket. She grabbed another water tube on her way out, thinking that Riddick deserved water as much as anyone else here, or almost as much.

 

Skyler was of the minority opinion that Riddick hadn't killed Zeke earlier in the cave, despite the fact that he had been crouching over the tunnel with a wickedly carved bone knife in his hand. The shiv hadn't been bloody, though, and neither had Riddick. But they had found plenty of blood about ten feet inside the cave, blood and bits of hair and bone. She didn't think it was possible for Riddick to have done all that damage without getting any blood on himself. Not that anyone else cared. After all, they already knew he was a killer. What more did they need to know?

As Skyler returned to the wrecked cargo room, she saw that Riddick hadn't moved since she had left. But now, unlike before, she could sense his presence . . . and his awareness of her.

She opened the little case and took out the pills, five of them, then dropped the case into her pocket. This wasn't going to be as easy as the water had been. She would have to get right up close to him if she wanted to give him the pills -- too close for comfort. Getting an arm's length away was a lot different than putting her hands right on his face. And hadn't he been gagged or something for awhile? Johns had called it a bit, like it was for an animal. Did that mean he might bite her? God, what was she doing here?

Riddick seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. "Would this help?" he asked, standing up and moving to the limits his restraints would allow. She was amazed how big he was, but lithe and panther-like, rather than muscle bound. She saw the contours of his body, and the dull gleam of his shackles, in the stippled light. Skyler tried to see if he was tricking her in some way, but if he was, she couldn't see it.

"How about this, then?" he offered. Still standing, he moved his head so that the light fell on his eyes. They were a beautiful iridescent blue, and they were utterly unreadable. But he had shown them to her, as if she could see something in them, and that made her feel better, like he had shown her the chink in his armor -- like he trusted her.

Reluctantly Skyler came to him -- nearer than she should, really -- and put the pills into Riddick's open mouth. She tried not to notice the softness of his lips. No part of someone like this should be soft. She held up her new tube of water and put the straw between his lips. He drank and swallowed the pills, then very deliberately backed away and sat back down.

Now that she had been so close to him, she had seen the wound on his face better. It looked like it still had sand in it, and he hadn't even wiped off the blood. But then, how could he, wearing the restraints?

"You oughta clean that scrape on your head," she muttered. "It could get infected . . . I could do it for you. "

Riddick assented with a barely perceptible nod. Sighing, she untucked her tank top and tore a strip of material off the bottom. Wetting the material with water from her tube, then stepped up to him again, even closer than before.

This time his presence was overwhelming -- his musky smell, the nearness of his body, the sweat on his skin, even the faint exhalations of his breath. Somewhere beneath her fear, she sensed her excitement. Stifling both, she gently began to clean the wound, talking to cover her confusion. 

"Yeah, this could really get infected. Johns should have let you wash it off. I don't think we have any medical supplies left, and an infection could kill you."

Riddick laughed. "Johns isn't going to let me die. I'm worth twice as much alive as dead, you know."

"No, I don't know. Why are you worth anything? I thought you were a convict."

"An escaped convict, which is why there's a bounty on my head, little girl. They cut the money in half if I'm dead, a little rule to discourage vigilante justice."

Now she stopped a moment. "Johns is a merc?" Her voice was colored with both suspicion and disbelief.

"What, did you think he was a marshal?" His sarcasm stung her. "Marshals don't have smack habits."

Skyler's head was swimming. She began to re-evaluate everything that had happened so far. She tried to hold on to a slippery strand of logic. "You're just fucking with me, aren't you?" It was hard to concentrate in this heat, especially near someone who radiated as much body warmth as Riddick. His skin was surprisingly smooth under her fingers, despite the dirt and abrasions.

"Why do you think he gets the shakes? In this heat? He needs a fix."

She raised an eyebrow and continued her ministrations. "I guess you never know."

"No," he said, "You really don't." Both his voice and his expression indicated a world of knowledge beyond her experience.

"So why are you telling me all this?"

"Maybe because you're the first person who hasn't treated me like a fucking animal in the last ten years. Maybe because it's been a long time since a woman touched me." 

His sudden intimacy -- and honesty -- caught her off guard. Riddick took advantage of her confusion to tilt his head, so that her hand now cradled his cheek. But she didn't move it away. Slowly he turned his head side to side, so that she caressed him. "You have very soft hands. There aren't any women at all at Slam City, you know. "

Both of them were breathing heavily at this point, but Skyler didn't want to confront the situation head-on. Better to break it off and consider it later, in the safety of . . . what? Well, whatever. Anything was better than trying to figure out what she was feeling now in the heat of the moment -- in the heat of Riddick's body.

Softly she withdrew her hand and moved around to the cut on his shoulder. She wetted the cloth again and began to clean the blood and grit away. She did it gently, because the cut was in the middle of a huge black and blue bruise.

"You're just fucking with me again," she whispered, but her heart was pounding. She tried to keep her hands steady on his back.

"I'd like to be fucking you," he admitted softly. "But I'm not fucking with you. Look, I'm telling you the truth. I've spent most of my life in juvie or prison, half of the time in solitary, usually with a goddamn bit between my teeth. If you look in my mouth, you can see the scars from that fucking thing. They treat me like I'm nothing but an animal in a cage to them -- a dangerous animal."

The cut was clean now, but she didn't walk away. She placed her hands on his shoulders, feeling the power of his body. He could snap her wrist like a twig with one hand. With both hands, he could break her spine.

"But aren't you dangerous?" she whispered into his ear. "Johns said you'd come back here just to skull-fuck us all in our sleep."

"Yeah, I might do that to Johns, anyway."

Just then they both looked up at the sound of boot heels approaching. Instinctively Skyler backed away into the darkness and crouched in the shadows. She didn't know why she did it, except that she knew she felt guilty being here with Riddick, and she didn't want anyone to know.

"Okay, convict," Johns' voiced boomed into the small chamber, "I guess you're cleared of the latest murder charge. We found what killed Zeke."

Riddick responded as if he hadn't been talking with Skyler just a moment before, as if he and Johns were friends or co-workers, discussing a project. "What was it?"

"I don't know, but it's something I'd like to sic on you. We also found a deserted settlement with an emergency escape craft. Now I'm just trying to decide whether or not to leave you here."

Like it's your decision alone, Skyler thought. But you're not the law. You're just a fucking bounty hunter, no better than anybody else.

"I'm inclined that way, but what with the small size of our party, I decided to bring you along." Johns hunkered down to look Riddick in the eyes. "I'm being serious now. Here's the deal. You work without chains, without the bit – and without shivs. And maybe, if we all work together, we can get off of this rock alive."

"So I can go back to that asshole of a prison? No thanks."

"I said this was a deal, convict. You help us get out of here alive, and maybe I'll forget what happened to my prisoner. Maybe I'll say you died in the crash. I'll worry about that later. Right now I'm more worried about getting out of here than what's going to happen afterward. Are you with me?"

"You'd do that, boss? Just cut me loose? That makes a nice fairy story, but I know it's not the truth."

Johns fingered the trigger of his rifle. "The truth is, I don't think we can afford to fight both you and the planet. And I want to live just as much as you do."

Doubtful, Skyler thought to herself. Apparently Riddick was thinking the same thing, and he began to argue with Johns. "My recommendation is to do me. Ghost me. Don't take the chance that I'm going to get shiv-happy on your ass and come skull-fuck you in your sleep. Get rid of me. That's what I'd do if I were you."

Johns laughed. "But that's the whole problem, isn't it? You're not me. You don't work and play well with others. So you don't know what I'd do. And I'm going to keep my eye on your ass, that's for sure. But you're more use to us alive than dead right now. So move it." As he spoke, Johns raised his rifle and shot right behind Riddick's head. Skyler jumped at the sound the same time Riddick did, though neither of them made any noise.

Riddick fell forward as Johns' bullet took apart the chains that had been supporting him. Johns kept his rifle up, pointed at the man on the floor. Riddick got up slow and easy, face to face with the barrel of Johns' gauge. "I want you to remember this moment," Johns told him. "How it could have went, and didn't." His point made, he lowered the rifle and handed Riddick his goggles.

Riddick went for the weapon instead, and now Johns found himself on the other side of the barrel. Skyler watched the emotions flowing over Riddick's face as he fought to control himself: fear, hurt, anger, hatred. "I want you to remember this moment," Riddick mocked him, as he threw the rifle down on the floor and stalked out into the sunlight, putting on his goggles as he did.

Johns just laughed a little and walked away, leaving Skyler alone in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this! Comments are especially welcome. I love you and will be willing to have your babies if you leave Kudos. 
> 
> Come hang out with me on Twitter: @evilgrrl.
> 
> Check out my Reylo madness on Tumblr: evilgrrl.tumblr.com


	2. Knives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The shipwrecked survivors of the transport crash try to find a way to survive and return to civilization. A violent criminal among them, Riddick, has agreed to help in exchange for being released after they escape from the planet. One of the female passengers, Skyler, is inexplicably drawn to him, despite the danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has added an original female character named Skyler. It veers off into AU territory when it turns out the total eclipse isn't going to happen during the course of this story.

Riddick was killing time -- trying to calm down from his encounter with Johns. He had found a very nice hunting knife in one of the dead settlers' quarters, and had sharpened it up until the edge would cut paper. Now he smeared some liquid soap onto his head and began shaving it with the knife. This was a show of bravery, both to himself and to the other survivors. He could not -- would not -- let Johns get the upper hand with him again. 

In any kind of a fair fight, Riddick would win over Johns. Of course, neither Riddick nor Johns particularly liked fair fights, so Riddick's superior physical condition and fighting skills really weren't that big of a factor. Johns had his own ways of evening up the odds too. But Riddick knew he could come out on top, and, telling himself that, he finished shaving his head without even a nick. 

Riddick had expected nothing less. He liked knives -- always had, even as a kid. His real relationship with them, however, had begun at the age of 12 when a bigger kid in juvie had tried to stick it up Riddick's ass. Riddick had cut it off for him, and the guy bled to death. Later in his life -- when he was sent to an adult prison at the age of 17 -- this murder conviction would matter a great deal. What mattered then, however, to 12-year-old Richard, was that he had established to his fellow inmates that he wasn't anybody's bitch and he never would be. If castrating a guy who'd tried to rape him didn't instill some respect into them, nothing would.  


Even then, though, Riddick had known he would have to keep proving himself time and again as the years progressed. His skill with knives not only gained him a dangerous reputation, but it also gave him a big advantage over almost any opponent, even guys much bigger and stronger than he was. Of course, by the time he was 18 or 19, there wasn't anybody bigger and stronger than he was. 

He still liked knives though. He liked the power that they gave him, and he liked their elegance and beauty. What he liked best about them, though -- and Riddick himself would not have been able to articulate it -- was the way a knife felt like a natural extension of his hand, his arm. After he had gotten to know a particular knife -- its heft, the feel of its handle, the sharpness of its blade -- he didn't have to think about how to use it anymore, no more than he had to think about walking. Riddick had a gift for finding the best way to wield a particular weapon, for using just the right finger pressure to make it do exactly what he wanted. He could kill, or just nick. It was his decision. The knife just became a part of him, one more extension of the killing machine Riddick had become. 

Riddick thought of the little bone knife he'd made when he'd first escaped on this world -- the one that was now tucked into his boot. Of course, he no longer really needed it, now that he had the hunting knife, but he still liked it nevertheless. He'd always preferred the shivs he'd made himself to manufactured knives. Manufactured knives were impersonal, but when Riddick made a shiv himself, he felt like he had put a part of himself into it. 

He was distracted from his reverie when Johns emerged from the main crew compartment, doubtless where he had been planning their heroic escape. 

Johns glanced at him and blanched at the hunting knife. "Hey, I thought I said no shivs!" 

Riddick didn't bother to explain the difference between shivs and knives to a man like Johns. He just calmly wiped the residue of soap from his scalp, and then from his knife. "You mean this?" he asked when the knife was clean. "This is just a personal grooming appliance." 

"Don't press your luck." 

Outwardly Riddick remained relaxed, but inwardly he tensed, ready to spring if Johns chose to make it an issue. Johns didn't, so Riddick put the knife away and wiped his head again. He had no doubt that Johns wasn't going to just let him go, but he didn't know how Johns was going to get him back into the shackles. He wanted Johns to make the first move. Maybe if the others saw Johns provoke him into a fight, they would believe Johns' death was self-defense, which it would be, since Riddick thought he would probably die if he had to go back to Slam City. Give me liberty or give me death, he thought absently. 

The castaways made their way toward the deserted settlement single file or in groups of two. Riddick walked alone, bringing up the rear of the group. Skyler stayed near the mourning Shazza, who didn't want conversation, but seemed to need the presence of a friend. Ever so often, the boy, Jack, would try to drop back and talk to Riddick, but Johns or Fry always kept him from it. The young boy had shaved his head now too and now wore makeshift goggles in imitation of Riddick, whom he seemed to fear and idolize equally. 

Riddick's slow advance to the front of the group was so gradual that Skyler didn't realize he was there until he was right up on her. Reacting to his appearance in her peripheral vision, she turned to glance at him, and he greeted her with a small nod. 

She couldn't explain why she was so drawn to him any more than she could explain why he seemed drawn to her. She had told herself that she'd taken him the water out of simple human decency, but none of her fellow passengers -- decent or not -- had done anything for him at all. 

Now she felt his presence behind her like a bed of coals. Riddick was impossible to ignore, striding muscularly through the sand. He made her feel self-conscious in a way she hadn't in years. Buried in with her excitement, however, was a low flame of fear. Riddick hadn't hurt her when he was all chained up, but what would he do now that he was free? What would he do to her if he caught her alone? She had been playing with fire and she knew it. 

Now she did her best to stifle her alarm and concentrate on getting to the settlement. She relaxed after a moment or two, only to find Riddick taking his place at her side -- as if by unspoken agreement -- and then they walked together. 

Jack and the Muslim boys called from the top of the nearest hill that the settlement lay just beyond. Skyler spoke no Arabic, but she could tell from the boys' wild cries and pointing what they were trying to say. The others all rushed up the hill to see the settlement, even the ones who had already been there. Riddick took the opportunity to put his hand on Skyler's neck and squeeze the muscles there. When he pulled away, she felt his handprint like a brand on her skin. 

The thing was, Skyler thought to herself as she trudged up the dune, she knew better than to even consider a flirtation with such a man. She had known a good number of men like Riddick before, and every one of them had met bad ends. She imagined that Riddick would too, even if Johns freed him. She thought of Riddick burning like a red giant until he imploded gloriously into a white dwarf. Skyler could not imagine anything in his future that could turn his path. The best course of action for her would be to break free from his orbit of gravity entirely. Sometimes, though, the best course of action wasn't possible. 

She saw the settlement for the first time as she crested the peak of the hill, feeling the wind blow across her face and billow her hair out behind her. The settlement was as plain and washed out as everything else under the light of the blue sun. But . . . Fry had said there was a skiff here, and the wind was cool, so Skyler tried to keep her spirits up. 

It was hard to do, though, as her eyes took in objects in a seemingly random pattern in the settlement. Was that cloth there a tarp hung up for shade, or was it laundry left to dry on the line? Hard to tell. Windows and doors had been left open in some of the buildings. Several metal tools lay in the middle of the path, half-buried in the dirt. 

Soon enough she heard the Muslims calling out that they had found water. They seemed to be big ones for shouting, the Muslims did, or maybe it was just because they were still kids. The boys had knelt down to pray by the time Skyler got to the pump, and Paris was filling his own containers like a greedy child. Skyler shrugged it off; they were all going to share and share alike unless or until they got off-planet, and Paris was stupid if he hadn't realized that by now. Hell, even Johns had recognized it when he released Riddick; they needed to pool every resource they had if they wanted to live. 

Skyler broke away from the others and ducked into a building with no door at all. It was an office of some sort. She looked in vain for communications equipment or records of any kind. There were a few notebooks scattered on the desks, but their pages were blank and crinkly now, their content erased by the wind and blowing dust. They could tell her nothing. 

She came out of the little building just in time to see Riddick moving away from something called a "Coring Room," which at least told Skyler the settlers had spoken English. It looked like Riddick had been doing a little reconnaissance of his own. He looked over at her for just a moment before he obeyed Johns' command to come join the party, and he smiled just a little as he pulled a dusty cloth mat off the roof, revealing Jack hidden underneath. "C'mon, boy!" Riddick mocked Johns' accent. "You're missing the party." 

The Imam had set out glasses of water for everyone on what looked like a conference table. He and the boys had taken it as a good sign that they had found the water pump -- it had to mean that God favored them. Skyler thought to herself that if there was a god, and he was showing them any favor whatsoever right now, it still didn't make up for the rogue comet, or meteor shower, or whatever it was that had destroyed the Hunter-Gratzner. 

Riddick himself was also contemplating God at that moment, as he stared at the water in his glass. God seemed to have a strangely black sense of humor, but Riddick's was much the same. Rather than making God in his own image, Riddick wanted to make himself over in the image of a god. To him, God was just another prison screw, another unreasoning authority that inflicted random pain and suffering on him. If he could become like a god, however, maybe the tide would turn. 

Or, he thought, he could try to live on borrowed power, like Johns did. He wore that nickel-slick badge as if it meant something to him. But Johns' respect for the law extended only as far as it coincided with his own plans. The reason he had become obsessed with Riddick, was that Riddick wouldn't accept the authority of Johns' position. Johns wanted to make his prisoner respect him. But in Riddick's world, you established your own power or you lived under the power of others. Johns couldn't expect Riddick to respect him just on somebody else's say so, even the law's.

Skyler saw Riddick join the little group at the end of the table, making plans to get the skiff running well enough to leave. She moved a little closer to hear what they were saying better. 

"I don't see how that little pissant thing can get us anywhere," Shazza objected. "It's barely big enough for all of us." 

"We don't have to get anywhere but the regular shipping lane," Riddick stated flatly. "Then we just stick out our thumb and get picked up." 

Skyler found herself being drawn in in spite of herself. "So why can't we just stick out our thumb down here?" 

"Too far away," Riddick answered. "I'm guessing we went way off course before we crashed. All the communication equipment on the ship was totaled, and the stuff on the skiff has a pretty limited range. We'll have to get up there, get our bearings, and then navigate to the general vicinity of the trade route before we'll be close enough for anyone to hear us." 

"Besides," added Johns, "who wants to stay here any longer than we have to?" She heard faint derision in Johns' voice that she hadn't heard in Riddick's. 

"Exactly!" Paris agreed. "If I owned this place and Hell, I'd rent out the planet and live in Hell!" That got a laugh from almost everyone in the little party. 

Fry and Johns continued their discussion about how many power cells they would need from the Hunter-Gratzner to run the skiff. Shazza said she thought she could get the solar-powered Sand Cat outside running, and they could use that to haul the power cells and their gear. She and Zeke must have made a formidable team, Skyler thought, if she could hold herself together at a time like this without him. 

The Imam suddenly noticed a full glass of water that had been left on the table. He glanced about quickly, accounting for his fellow pilgrims. "Ali?" He called quietly. "Has anyone seen Ali? The little one?" 

Riddick remembered where Jack had been hiding. The two boys played together a lot. Jack didn't seem to know anything now though. 

"Has anyone checked the Coring Room?" It was more of a suggestion of where to look than a question. 

Just then they heard a faint cry that could have been the wind howling through the buildings, or a human scream. 

The others set down their water immediately and hurried out to find the boy. Riddick, however, methodically walked around the table and drank the water they had left behind in their glasses. He toasted Skyler with the last one, then they went to the Coring Room together. 

 

If anyone had not known what a "coring room" was, the equipment was self-explanatory. A huge metal drill depended from the ceiling, and Skyler could see different strata of rock in the core sample visible in the see-through shaft of the drill. The drill would dig down into the earth, then come back up with a sample of the rock and soil it had encountered, in the same order and condition it had been found. 

"Musta been geologists or something," Shazza speculated. "Advance team, scouts out the planets ahead of the regular miners." She looked at the abandoned equipment all around the room. "Guess it didn't pan out." 

Johns went off to the right looking for the boy, and the Imam went left, continuing to call his name as he made his way through the dark rooms. A noise brought his attention to what looked like a supply closet. He called for the boy again, but received no answer. Slowly his face twisted into a mask of apprehension as he approached the door. Finally he steeled himself to open it, and a huge mass of large, bat-like creatures flooded out of the opening. They circled into the coring room and dived down into the shaft. Ali's ravaged body fell onto the floor. It was hardly recognizable as human. 

It was Riddick that put everything together. The Imam had taken Ali's body away, thankfully, and everyone else had gathered around the well shaft. 

"This is where the settlers are," he stated flatly, taking off his goggles to look down into the depths of the pit. Everyone else wanted to fool themselves into thinking the settlers had just left. Riddick woke them up. "They didn't leave here with clothes left in closets and pictures on the wall. Or eyeglasses on the tables, toothbrushes lying around. The same things that got Zeke got Ali, and those same things are what killed the settlers." 

Paris and Shazza turned away from the mining shaft, unwilling to confirm with their eyes what their minds told them. Finally Johns took out one of his percussive flares, lit it, and dropped it into the well. It revealed dozens of human bones lining the shaft as it fell, until it finally came to rest in the middle of a group of skulls. 

"This is where they came when it happened. No other place was secure. This building had the strongest doors. So they chained themselves inside and huddled in the dark, waiting for it to be over. But they forgot to lock the basement," Riddick said, gesturing toward the shaft. 

"And now they're going to get us too!" For the first time, Jack seemed young and vulnerable, his bravado shredded like Ali's body had been. 

"Now let's just wait a minute," Johns interrupted. "Let's not panic. We still don't know exactly what happened. The only places these things have been have been dark -- the tunnel, the mineshaft, and the supply room, or whatever it is. The boy disturbed their nest before he even knew what he'd done. If we just keep to the light, we should be okay. And God knows there's a lotta light on this planet." 

Fry still had a puzzled look on her face. "Okay, but if they don't like the light, why did the settlers come in here? Why didn't they stay outside? We've already seen that the suns never set all at the same time . . . " Her voice trailed off until suddenly her face lit up. "That's it! I knew there was something about that model!" 

With no further explanation, Fry took them to the little model of the solar system she had found earlier in one of the other buildings. Stiff wires held up the several planets in this system, and rotated them around the three suns in the center. The model demonstrated perfectly why daylight lasted forever here, as one sun rose just as the other two set. Fry opened the control panel of the device, and began rotating the gears by hand until they finally came to rest in a most unusual position: with all three suns blocked by the planets that came between the suns and this planet. A perfect eclipse. 

"God, that's bloody horrible!" Shazza shivered as she spoke. "Those little buggers came out of their hidey holes and no one could get away -- they don't have any artificial lights here." 

"Reminds me of a story I read once," Skyler said softly. 

Riddick completed the thought for her. "Nightfall. They burned their entire civilization in one night to keep away the darkness." 

Skyler saw that, once again, they were in perfect synch, like the planets lined up during the eclipse. But how could she be on the same wavelength as a killer like Riddick? 

"You can't know that's what happened!" Paris objected in an appalled voice. "It could have been . . . " He trailed off, unable to come up with an alternative story. 

Riddick, goggles still on his forehead, turned his shining eyes on Paris and looked him straight in the face. "They prepped their escape craft, didn't they? You don't prep your emergency vehicle unless there's a fucking emergency." 

"He's fucking right," Jack echoed, regaining a little of his spunk before Fry shushed him. 

Skyler continued to stare at the model and the huge ringed planet that stood between their desert planet and the suns. "So when does it happen again?" 

Imam, returned from burial duty, opened the shutters a little and the solar powered model began to rotate slowly. "It seems as if the planets are moving as one. I would think by looking at this that the eclipse would last for quite some time." said as He opened the window shutters wider, so that the model turned more quickly, then checked the numbers in the little window on the model's base, "But, I think it will be some time before it happens again. A few years perhaps." 

"Well, that's a goddamn relief," Johns sighed as he unshouldered his rifle and leaned back on the display table, turning his back on the model in the process. "We'd really be fucked if those things could come and go at will." 

Fry once again was the wary voice of reason. "Still, we've got to be careful as long as we're here. They could be in any dark place." 

Everyone nodded, eyeing each other nervously, then picked themselves up to return to the conference room. Skyler watched Riddick lower his goggles and very deliberately open all the shutters before they left, filling the room with light. 

Fry, on the other hand, neither lingered in the model building, nor joined the others in the conference room. She went directly to the escape skiff and began a systems check. Obviously she now wanted to get off this planet more than ever. 

Skyler headed to the skiff herself, a few feet behind Fry. She hadn't been inside it yet and wanted to see. When she stepped up onto the entrance ramp, however, she heard Johns' voice and realized that somehow he had beaten both Fry and her to the vehicle. She heard them talking softly but intently inside. She inched forward silently on her rubber soled shoes until she could hear what they were saying and even see a little, without being seen herself. 

"We should wait until we're almost ready to go before bringing over those power cells," Johns was saying. 

Fry was preoccupied, checking the equipment. "Why? Then we'd have to make two trips back and forth to the Hunter." 

Johns leaned over her shoulder. "Because if this thing is ready to go, and Riddick gets his chance, he'll take this skiff and leave us the fuck behind. He's a pilot -- did you know that?" 

Fry only looked up at him for a second. "No, I didn't know. How could I?" She sounded both surprised and angry. 

Skyler herself was a little surprised. Piloting wasn't something you could pick up on the fly. What? Had he taken a leave of absence from a killing spree to go to pilot's school for a couple of years? 

"Did I ever tell you how he escaped?" Johns had his arm on Fry's shoulder, but Skyler couldn't tell how Fry was taking it. "Highjacked a prison transport. Slashed the pilot's throat. Killed a couple of his fellow prisoners too. Heard enough yet? No? He will do anything to escape. He'd leave all of us in a heartbeat." 

"But why? I can see why he'd kill his police escort, but why would he kill us? We haven't done anything to him." 

"Why do you think?" 

Skyler suddenly felt as if she couldn't breathe. A heavy weight pressed down on her lungs for the few seconds Fry paused before replying. The answer came to her just as Fry spoke it. "Because you're not going to let him go like you said you would. You're going to chain him up and take him back in!" 

Now Johns pulled away from her. "Hey, the law says he's gotta pay. It's not up to me to say any different." 

Fry got up to face him. "But it was up to you to tell him you had a deal." 

"I already know he's not going to keep his side of the bargain. Why should I?”

"You know, Riddick hasn't hurt any of us, even though he's had plenty of opportunities. As far as I can tell, he hasn't even lied to us. But, hey, you just do whatever the fuck you want. You're the law, right?" 

Johns just glared at her, until she pushed past him and pounded down the boarding ramp, scant seconds after Skyler did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are still reading, know that I love you! 
> 
> I'd love to read your thoughts and comments, and kudos are what keep me going.


	3. Riddick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skyler and Riddick form an alliance as the crash survivors try to decide how to survive. 
> 
> The chapter begins just after Skyler has overheard Johns and Fry talking about breaking their agreement to let Riddick go free after the return to civilization in exchange for his help in getting of the planet. Skyler goes to warn him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sex occurs between two characters without explicit consent in this chapter. It is NOT a rape, but in real life, both people should always consent before a sexual experience together.

The settlement was small, and Skyler didn't have to look long to find Riddick. He was alone in a dark office, going over his personal weapons and equipment in preparation for the trip. Just how he had acquired those weapons, Skyler could only guess. 

The blinds of the room were closed, and Riddick had taken off his goggles, revealing the soft glow of his eyes. Skyler felt almost hypnotized just seeing them. 

Riddick looked up as she walked in, and took in her distress at a glance. "Hey, what's up?" 

Now that she was face-to-face with him, however, Skyler found it hard to say the words, to tell him Johns and Fry planned to betray him. What did she think she was doing anyway? What possible good could be accomplished by doing this? She realized that she had acted instinctively, that she hadn't thought things through. "It's Johns," she finally murmured, her mouth feeling as dry as the blowing sand outside. 

Riddick didn't seem to be surprised. "Was it his mother's degenerate sexual tendencies you wanted to discuss, or the fine upstanding character of a merc who shoots up?" 

"He lied to you." Her voice was very small in the big room. "Your deal is off." 

Riddick remained calm, but Skyler sensed an intensity beneath his casual manner. He stopped his preparations, and, knife in hand, came to her and leaned in close. "What deal?" His voice was a hot whisper in her ear. 

"He's not going to let you go. He's going to take you back to Slam City." 

Riddick wasn't alarmed at all, only very interested. "And how do you know?" His hand found her waist of its own accord. Skyler instantly felt giddy, almost dizzy, at his touch. 

"I overheard him tell Fry. In the skiff." 

He set down the knife, and began to stroke her body, sliding his hands down her back to her ass, her hips, her thighs. "And what did Fry say?" 

"She told him off. But I don't think she's going to do anything about it." 

Riddick pulled her body against him, then backed her up against the wall, pinning her legs with his. "Because she thinks he's a marshal." 

Skyler couldn't speak any longer, shuddering in both fear and pleasure as Riddick pressed against her. She managed to nod, since she couldn't catch her breath enough to reply, and he took that as her answer. Skyler saw that he seemed to be at least twice as big as she was. His physique encompassed hers, enfolded it into itself. 

He lowered his head to kiss her neck. "And you came straight here to tell me about it, didn't you?" He sounded surprisingly pleased. Evidently he expected no answer, as he continued to kiss and bite her softly. "Good girl." Now he ran his tongue around the rim of her ear, tugged on her earlobe with his teeth. "You're on my team, aren't you?" He nuzzled the skin of her neck, tasting her sweat. "Aren't you?" he insisted. 

"Yes," she whispered back, and she wasn't sure if she was answering the question he had asked, or the question his body was asking. Maybe they were one in the same. 

He lifted his face to hers and stared into her eyes. "I haven't kissed a woman in years," he said to himself. "Whores won't let you kiss them on the mouth, you know." He lowered his head and began the kiss gently, but when he felt her response, he became rougher, his movements more urgent. He surrounded her with his body, covered her with his mouth. 

And finally when her need matched his, he lowered her to the floor and they joined together in the darkness. And for a few minutes, nothing mattered.

 

Afterwards, Skyler lay with her head in the crook between his arm and his chest for a time. She felt heat coming off of him in waves. She smelled his skin, heard his blood pumping through his body, felt the exhalations of his breath on her hair. 

His voice was low. "God, I don't think I have *ever* come that hard before." 

She turned her head to rest her lips against his warm brown skin. "I guess it's been a long time." 

"A really long time." 

There was a wistful quality in his voice, but she answered him playfully. "You probably shouldn't go that long without it again. I heard a man can damage himself if he's without a woman for too long." 

He looked down at her speculatively. "You know, I think you're right. And I've got a lot of lost time to make up for." He wrapped his body around her again, pulling her beneath him. Oblivion. Ecstasy. 

 

Riddick handed her clothes to her as he pulled on his pants. "So you think I can get Fry to help me?" No romantic words, no soft assurances. Practical. Pragmatic. 

Skyler dressed slowly, considering the question. She would have preferred to lie with him a little while longer, putting off dealing with their situation a few minutes more. But this wasn't the time for that, and Riddick was not the man. She had known that going in. It wasn't fair to expect anything else now. "I do," she answered him. "I don't think she liked what he was planning." 

Riddick laced up his boots. "Then I guess I should have a little talk with her. Burst her bubble about her friend Johns." 

"Yeah. She doesn't know I heard them talking in the skiff, though. So if you tell her casually . . . " 

"She won't know I have an ulterior motive." He smiled in amusement. "I think we're planning to go back to the ship to spend the night and get some sleep before we leave. Shazza's got that Sand Cat up and running, so we'll probably use that. If you sit up front with her, you'll be out of the worst of the dust." He gathered his equipment back together as she put on her boots. 

So, he was just going to withdraw, now that he'd gotten what he wanted. She shouldn't have thought any different. She should have been glad, actually. He was doing her a favor by not letting her get involved with him. 

Then to Skyler's surprise -- and relief -- he kissed her quickly and brutally on the way out the door and said, "Come help me after we get over there." And -- quick as that -- she knew they would stay together after all. 

 

Skyler and Riddick stashed their meager belongings in the trashed cargo hold where Skyler had first brought him water. No one else seemed inclined to join them, which suited both of them very well. 

Fry was insisting that they start loading the Sand Cat now before getting some sleep. Skyler, who pretty much thought it was a good idea, worked with Riddick, as he'd told her too. She couldn't even move the heavy power cells that he shouldered out to the vehicle two at a time, but she helped him remove them from their housings and secure them on the Sand Cat. Fry finally declared a sleep period of eight hours, and, despite the disorientation of continual daylight, the survivors were glad for a chance to rest. 

Skyler and Riddick returned to the cargo hold to sleep. Skyler couldn't believe that people wouldn't comment on the two of them being together, so she had to assume no one had noticed. She guessed that each one of them was in the middle of his or her own private hell, and everyone else were just supporting characters to them. 

They had sex again before they went to sleep. The hold was dark, and Riddick had been able to set aside his goggles. Skyler thought he had the most beautiful eyes she'd ever seen, but she hated the fact that they were unreadable. So instead she focused on what the rest of his body told her. She read each raised scar, every small round burn mark, every place that he had been broken, and that he himself had healed. How had he been able to survive the life that had hurt him so much and so often? His light brown body bore too many marks to have come from fighting or accidents alone. And the burns looked suspiciously like they had come from cigarettes, and they looked very old. When had Riddick ever learned how to love? How to be merciful? And yet he had been gentle with her, and shown mercy to the others -- Johns for example. Skyler wondered why he hadn't actually become the animal that everyone thought he was. These were her thoughts as she loved every part of him, and was loved in return. 

 

Afterward, Riddick placed her between himself and the wall to sleep, and carefully put the hunting knife within easy grasp. He had his little bone shiv, of course, in the pocket of his pants, which he slept in, as well as a sharpened piece of steel in his waistband, but nothing else on him. This was about as relaxed as Riddick ever got.  
Still, he slept better than he had for a long time, and no nightmares disturbed his sleep. He woke once, briefly, and lay there smelling Skyler's hair and skin for a long time. He luxuriated in being with a woman again, especially this one. Just being this close to her gave him a faint, shimmery thrill. It had been a long time since he had had anything like a partner, anything like a friend. But now he trusted her the way she had trusted him, even when he had been chained up like a fucking animal.

But it was more than that too. He couldn't explain his feelings. He wanted to take her at least a thousand times more. He needed to brand his name into her skin. He longed to mark her flesh with his teeth. He wanted to bind them together physically in a way that couldn't be broken, so that they would be like one person. He just didn't know how. He lazily considered the possibilities until eventually his thoughts drifted away into sleep again, as he unconsciously moved himself closer to her. 

Neither was aware of it, but as they spooned together in their sleep, they created a living Tao symbol: each curving into the other perfectly, a little piece of each in the other's heart -- Ying and Yang, male and female, dark and light, unified in an eternal circle. Surely it was too good to last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for continuing to read. You're getting close to the end. I'd love for you to share any comments you might have, even just that you like the story or that I've messed something up. 
> 
> If you can prove you gave me a kudo, I will personally send you $10! (kidding)


	4. Close Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skyler and Riddick are a team now, but alliances between the survivors form and shift during the preparations to escape the planet.

Skyler found it difficult to get up without food or coffee, but Riddick was completely unaffected. He was still riding the rush of his tenuous freedom, and his anxiety about Johns couldn't but help keep him on edge. Now he had to try to bring Fry over to his side before the inevitable confrontation, and do it without Johns catching wind of it. 

They dressed and rounded up the personal items they felt they had to have, then went outside to join the others. Fry was pulling a few last pieces of equipment out of the navigation bay of the ship. 

Skyler saw Riddick look in Fry's direction. "What do you think?" he asked. 

"This may be the best chance you'll get." 

"Okay. You'll let me know if Johns starts over this way?" 

Skyler smiled at him wickedly. "He won't be." 

Riddick smiled back. "Now don't get him all hot and bothered if you can help it. You know how these White boys can be." 

"I know," she said, nodding in Fry's direction. "Go on." 

He squeezed her hand lightly, then headed into the ship. 

 

Johns was cleaning his handgun in the shade of the other side of the Hunter-Gratzner. He looked pretty intent on what he was doing, so Skyler left him alone for the moment. She wondered what kind of a man he really was. He and Riddick didn't seem all that different really. Riddick killed people who got in his way, and Johns killed or kidnapped people who got in the way of the law. Not everyone with a price on his head was worth more alive than dead, and she had no doubt that Johns had killed in the line of duty more than once. 

She noticed a tremor in his hand, and the way he sat down and breathed deeply for a moment. Then he put his gun back into the holster on his belt and headed into a small compartment at the back of the ship.  


It was pretty far away from the nav bay where Riddick was currently bending Fry's ear, but Skyler didn't want to take any chances. She followed Johns in very quietly. She watched through a crack in the wall as he prepped his needle and his dose, then shot it directly into the tear duct of his eye. Evidently, track marks would be career limiting in any kind of law enforcement career, even one as far removed as bounty hunting. 

She saw Johns' body relax as the drug took effect. She wondered if he'd be more dangerous high or jonesing. The morphine high kept him cool and collected, but it might also put a damper on his adrenaline rush in hazardous situations. When he needed a fix, though, his body was weak and his temper was short. Which might be good if Riddick was trying to provoke him. She noted the time he had shot up so she could track it better. 

After a few minutes, Johns seemed to come back to himself. Now he was composed, confident, sure of himself. No, this wouldn't be a good time for Riddick to take him on yet. 

Skyler didn't see either Fry or Riddick outside, so she assumed they were still talking in the nav bay. It would probably best to keep Johns preoccupied until she saw one or the other of them emerge into the little courtyard. When she saw Johns slowly moving toward the exit, she stepped into the doorway as if she were just now entering from outside. 

Johns moved through the rippling shadows toward her. In other circumstances, she might have found him attractive: tall, well-built, curly blond hair and dark blue eyes. She *had* admired his ability to stay calm in a crisis, until she found out it came from a little medicine vial. She would have liked his confidence, his natural leadership ability, and the quiet authority he exuded.  


Now she saw him with different eyes. She had first begun to hate him when she saw him beating Riddick when he was down and defenseless. What she had taken for confidence was arrogance and self-centeredness. His leadership qualities were just bullyboy tactics with some manners laid on top. And his quiet authority was usually just a pose to make his life a little bit easier, like his badge. 

Now that she really thought about it, Johns himself seemed to embody all of the frightening qualities that he'd insisted were Riddick's. Riddick was the one who had kept calm in a crisis, and his confidence was an accurate assessment of his abilities. In prison, if you couldn't back up your attitude with your fists, there was always someone willing to take you down. As for leadership, well, Riddick went his own way. He might not lead anyone else, but he didn't submit to anyone's authority but his own either. 

Now Johns smiled at her in that sleepy eyed, slow-talking Southern gentleman way of his. "Hey, little lady," he called to her pleasantly. "Are you all ready to get out of this place?" 

"You would not *believe* how ready I am," Skyler answered, "but . . ." She glanced out the door of the ship as if afraid of being heard, then walked forward so she could talk to Johns more quietly. "I don't want to scare anybody, but I have to wonder if we have any chance at all of making it back." 

Johns stared at her thoughtfully. 

"I mean," Skyler went on nervously, "we can't go into cryo sleep for this. We don't have any food, and our water supply is limited. How long can we last like that, waiting for someone to rescue us?" 

"Oh, I don't think it'll be too long," Johns assured her. "We won't be declared missing for a few more days, but Fry told me they managed to send out an SOS before the crash, so someone may be looking for us already." 

Skyler really had been worried about this very thing, but if she'd wanted to hear someone else's opinion, she would have gone to Fry. Or maybe Riddick. She glanced around behind her nervously again, and this time she saw Riddick outside bumming a smoke from Paris. Time to wrap up this little one-act play.

Skyler looked up at Johns' face with just the right mixture of anxiety and desire for reassurance. "You really think so? You're not just saying that to make me feel better?" 

"Naw," Johns answered. "I'm not." 

No, Skyler thought to herself. You're doing it to make yourself feel better. 

"Okay then. I guess I'd better go help pack it up. I just wanted your honest opinion, you know, in private, away from everybody else. Thanks." 

Johns followed her out into the eerie light of the blue sun and began to clean his rifle. "No problem. Anytime." He smiled at her with his white teeth, but it only made her skin crawl. 

She circled around the Sand Cat and helped Shazza make some final adjustments on the motor until she could slip away.

 

Riddick didn't usually smoke, but it was good to calm his nerves and get that nicotine boost after talking with Fry. She had held out against him the way she probably had with Johns, stubbornly arguing her own opinion. But Riddick had pushed past that by getting right up in her face and letting her know what Johns was really like. 

He'd enjoyed the encounter, despite the hostility -- enjoyed finding a way to get a rise out of Fry, get behind her defenses. She was tough and she was smart. He'd also overheard her confession to Johns about wanting to dump the passengers during the crash to give herself a little bit better chance to live through it, so he knew she had a strong survival instinct too. 

He'd taken a lot of pleasure in teasing her and frightening her at the same time, getting through all her barriers with a little bit of sex and a little bit of the truth. In actuality, though, all of his sexual energy was being taken up by Skyler now, and Fry no longer seemed as appealing as she had at first. And the very fact that she had allied herself with Johns made Riddick question her judgment. The important thing, though, was that he had planted enough doubt about Johns in her mind to maybe bring her over to his side when Johns finally lost it. Riddick could do nothing more than hope now. 

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Riddick was actually glad that Johns was going to force the issue. There was no way he was going to leave Johns alive if he could help it, but if Riddick just killed him flat out, the other passengers would make sure the law got him as soon as their little skiff was picked up. Johns had put him through too much, and was too dogged in his pursuit, for Riddick to let him live, though. Johns would never give up the hunt until he or Riddick was dead. Riddick hoped it would be soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have anything you might want to say to me, please put it in the comments. 
> 
> I'm also on Twitter at @evilgrrl. Come say hi. 
> 
> I'm also on Tumblr at evilgrrl.tumblr.com and I'd love to see you there. 
> 
> Kudos keep me alive under very dangerous conditions. They clear my complexion, water my fields, and feed my livestock.


	5. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johns threatens Riddick as the survivors plan to escape the planet.

The survivors of the crash of the Hunter-Gratzner gave their ship one last long look before Shazza pulled away from it in the over-loaded Sand Cat. Fry seemed to be taking it the worst, although Riddick remembered how adamantly she had refused her captaincy. But now her knuckles were white where they gripped the roll bar for balance, and she looked like she actually might cry. You had to feel for her at least a little. 

The trip back was much quicker than the trip to the ship had been, and before he knew it, they were back at the settlement. The Sand Cat stopped right beside the skiff, and everyone hopped out and started transferring the load from one to the other. Riddick saw that Johns was letting him bring the power cells into the skiff, but insisted on loading them himself, making sure that Riddick didn't get a chance to be alone on a fully-powered escape vessel. 

Riddick, however, had no intention of deserting everyone else in order to make sure they wouldn't blow his cover once they were picked up. Especially that kid, Jack. Riddick got a kick out of him. The main reason, though, was that it would be far too suspicious for Riddick to be rescued in the skiff all by himself. And if he could get the others to vouch for him -- at least when they were first picked up -- it would make his final escape a whole lot easier. 

He stopped to rest a minute, and saw Skyler bringing him a tin cup of water, which he took gratefully. "Well?" she asked. 

Riddick shrugged. 

"You're not going to just leave him here, are you?" 

"Why not?" Riddick laughed. "He'd do it to me. And I don't think the both of us are going to get on that ship either. I've got to do him before he does me." 

"And after that?" 

"After that, I guess I tell the people who rescue us -- assuming somebody does -- that I'm somebody else, then get the fuck out of Dodge as soon as we land anywhere. If I'm lucky, I'll have at least a couple of months before anybody comes after me again." 

"You know," the girl began hesitantly, "if you really got a new name -- a new ID, I mean -- you might not have anybody on your tail for a lot longer than that." 

"You mean one of those counterfeit jobs? They don't last very long." 

She shook her head. "No. A real ID, just one that belongs to someone else. Or *did* belong to someone else." 

Riddick turned his full concentration on her. "What are you talking about?" 

The girl was looking down, intimidated by his gaze. "You just find somebody who doesn't need their ID anymore, because they're dead maybe, and you take it. It's a real ID, and it comes with a real birth certificate, work number and everything. All legit." 

A strange feeling was beginning to come over Riddick. He could almost see new doors opening in his future. "And how do I do all this?" 

"Well, I have friends that could do it for us." 

"Where?" 

She seemed a little less embarrassed now. "Lots of places. All over. And if we weren't close to any of them, I can always get in touch. You know, with a drop box or something." 

Riddick almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you telling me you set up new papers for people?" 

"Not very often," she said quickly. "Most of the work I do is perfectly legal. I'm a communications consultant." 

Something changed between them in that moment, although Riddick was not consciously aware of it at the time. Like one of his knives, Skyler was becoming another part of him, an extension of his presence in the world. There was no altruism or sentiment in his thoughts now, just the wheels of his mind spinning pragmatically. Eventually, of course, he might come to love her, and maybe through her, himself. But at this moment, Riddick barely felt his expanding consciousness as he considered all new possibilities that hadn't been there a moment before. 

"You really think it could work?" 

Skyler heard the small bit of hope in his voice, and it almost broke her heart. "It would probably take at least one more ID switch after that to really make sure the trail was really clear, but that shouldn't be a problem. You'd want to get your eyes fixed, of course; they're too distinctive." 

"And they suck in the sunlight too." 

She smiled at him. "And you should probably get your right thumb print altered, the one they usually use for ID." 

"Changing fingerprints? That's really delicate work." 

"Yes. It is. And it's expensive and painful too. But I know people who can do it." She was perfectly serious as she stared into his eyes. "Now, tell me what you want to do." He heard the hope in her voice, but it didn't register on him except as a reflection of his own newfound hope.

He pulled her close, just for a moment, and hugged her to himself fiercely. "I want to get the fuck out of here, get my eyes fixed, and go someplace really far away." 

Her voice was muffled against his chest, but he heard her anyway. "Then it's done."

 

Fry stood on the entrance ramp to the skiff. "Okay, people," she called. "All aboard who's going aboard." But her announcement was perfunctory, and she turned and entered the skiff before seeing anyone move to follow. 

Riddick was beginning to think he'd misjudged Johns. But he couldn't really believe Johns would trust him to behave when so much was at stake. He was just waiting to see how it happened. 

Fry and Paris were already aboard the skiff, and all the others were lining up to get in, when Riddick appeared at the top of the ramp and threw down the shackles and the bit that Johns had hidden in his bag aboard the skiff. "Don't need these anymore," Riddick announced. "Dead weight." 

Riddick could tell Johns was taken by surprise, as was everyone else. Johns stared down at the metal laying in the dirt and stuttered just a little before he got his excuse out. "Hey, that's my gear. I can take it with me if I want to." 

Riddick's smile had no humor in it. "We got weight limits. Can't take 'em." 

Understanding of what the two men were really talking about slowly began to dawn on Shazza's face "He's right, Johns. We don't need 'em. You can get new ones later. They're probably insured anyway." 

Johns shook his head. "I'm just the type of guy who likes to make his own insurance. Come on, now, boy, get on board." He bent down and picked up the shackles himself. 

"Those aren't going aboard with me," Riddick stated flatly, just waiting for Johns to go for his gun. 

"What's the hold up?" Fry called out from within the ship. "We're burning fuel here." 

Johns didn't even hear her. "Then I guess you're staying here." 

Jack was looking in confusion from one man to the other, not understanding the dispute. "Let's just go, can't we?" 

Again, it was as if the two men heard no one but each other. 

"No," Riddick said, contradicting Johns. "The chains are staying here and maybe you want to stay here with them." 

"What's the problem, my good man?" Paris asked in that superior, slightly irritated British accent of his as he came up behind Riddick in the doorway. "If I can't take any of *my* cargo, which is surely worth much more than that lot, then why should you take yours?" 

"Yeah," Johns said in a sinister way. "Your 'cargo' won't keep us from getting our throats slashed in the middle of nowhere. These," he held up the shackles, "just might." 

Shazza was incensed. "You made a deal! He behaves and helps us get out of here and you let him go!" 

Johns' smile was nasty. "Sure. I just want to wait until we're rescued first. Then I'll let him go." 

Fry, looking angry and impatient, appeared behind Riddick. "What's going on out here? Get the hell on board." 

Shazza spoke first. "Johns here is goin' back on his word. He wants to lock Riddick up again. Probably planning on takin' him back to jail too!" 

"Not necessarily." Johns tried to turn his reasonable lawman look on her. "It's your safety I'm thinking of. It'd be too late to do it after he rapes one of you women and cuts you up. Or one of the boys," he added as an afterthought, glancing in their direction. 

"You're dancing on razor blades, Johns," Fry muttered darkly. 

That remark finally pushed Johns over the edge. "Look, you may be captain of this ship, but I'm still the law, and this here is my prisoner." 

It was only when Johns reached for his gun that Riddick saw the empty holster and Skyler standing behind him, holding something behind her back. She managed to toss away the gun before Johns turned around to see what had happened. Frantically he began to look around for his rifle. 

"You looking for this?" Fry was holding it in the doorway of the skiff. "You don't need it. Now everybody stop fucking around and come on in." 

Johns lunged for Fry -- and the rifle -- and that's when Riddick went into action, moving between the two and drawing his knife. The two men glared at each other for a moment, then Riddick said, "Let's get it on, white boy," and they began circling. 

Riddick had the big hunting knife, and Johns had only the shackles to fight with, but Riddick didn't bother worrying about whether the fight was fair. All Johns had to do, after all, was just put the chains down and he could go right up on board. 

Riddick was the bigger, brawnier man, and Johns the lighter and slimmer, but their looks belied their fighting styles. Johns led with brute force, lashing out with the shackles as hard as he could, while Riddick moved with the grace of a panther, sinuous and swift. He blocked most of John's swings with the chains, or took the blows in exchange for cutting Johns' arms. Riddick had always drawn first blood, and this time was no different. 

Riddick changed his tactics after Johns began bleeding freely. Now Riddick ducked the blows, or lunged out of the way, trying to tire his opponent out. He still got in small cuts with the hunting knife when he had the chance, and soon both his clothes and Johns' were splattered with Johns' blood. Riddick's arms and chest burned where the shackles had made contact, but he could tell that Johns was beginning to fade. Riddick danced around him a little while longer before moving in for the kill. Johns was too weak now for a proper fighter's stance, and he had lowered the chains to below his waist. Riddick took his shot, whirling around like a dervish, inflicting a separate killing blow on each turn. Johns fell into a tumble of blood and guts and ragged bits of flesh. He didn't suffer long though; Riddick had slashed his throat. 

No one in the circle of survivors moved or spoke. Riddick showed his usual bravado in turning his back on the body and calmly cleaning his knife. It was all bravado, though -- a now-unnecessary show of strength and confidence for the others. No one spoke until the Imam quietly suggested they bury the body before they flew out.  


Fry looked down at the mess Riddick had left and felt her gorge rise. "Forget it," she ordered, and went back aboard ship. The Imam compromised by saying a short prayer over the body before he and his remaining charges also boarded. 

It had gone better than Riddick had hoped for. Not only were the other passengers sympathetic, but not one of them had objected to the showdown. He would have thought someone would at least have said no, let's settle this peacefully. But no one had. Riddick and Johns were both killers. No one wanted to interfere. Neither of their lives was worth fighting for.  


Now it was over and they could go back to starring in their own life dramas. He had no reason to believe any of them would cause him any trouble before he could . . . before he and Skyler could get away. The others were almost as complicit in Johns' death as Riddick was. And in a way, it was self-defense, for all of them. No one liked the idea of Johns running the skiff by force and overruling everyone else, including Fry, with his guns. He had made his decision, and he had taken the consequences. It was good riddance as far as Riddick was concerned. 

Now Skyler came to him with some water, some whiskey, and a reasonably clean piece of cloth. She urged him to board the skiff, where he sat down and let her tend to his wounds. 

No one stared outright, but Riddick could see them stealing curious glances at him and the girl. He supposed he'd just proven himself to be the heartless killer they all thought he was. And they were right -- when your life was at stake, you couldn't let yourself be distracted by personal feelings. You had to bury them down deep enough so that you wouldn't even hear them, except in your dreams. You couldn't show emotion, weakness. No one would respect you if you did. 

The other passengers shuffled in their seats, putting on safety harnesses, adjusting their clothing for comfort. He felt their eyes upon him, judging him. He knew he was doing the right thing in being stoic and impassive, in not giving into the turmoil of fatigue and regret and confusion that threatened to overtake him. 

Fuck 'em, Riddick thought finally. He pulled Skyler into his lap, wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck. She put her arms around him, and held him, and comforted him softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love everyone who has read this, and I greatly appreciate all comments. 
> 
> If you leave me Kudos, I will track you down and buy you a drink someday. 
> 
> I am available for Reylo-ing and fangirling over on Twitter at @evilgrrl. 
> 
> I post a lot of Reylo and Adam Driver stuff over on Tumblr too:  
> evilgrrl.tumblr.com


End file.
